Thursday, June 30, 2011

Run For Your Life Launch Pad

In the year 2010, 144 people aged 70 to 74 celebrated their longevity by completing the New York City Marathon.  In the year 2012 I will turn 70. Would I like to join the ranks of these hardy septuagenarians by completing only my second Marathon 23 years later? Absolutely! Will I be able to do it?  At this moment in time, June 2011, having recently lost my soul mate, Bernice Betty Wagner, and still in the throes of a mysterious foot injury, I don’t assume I will even make it to 70.
In October 1989, I ran the Detroit Free Press Marathon. I dedicated that race to my mother who had passed the winter before. The moment I crossed the finish line I began to cry. I was torn between the extremes of exaltation and grief. Exaltation from accomplishing such an unthinkable goal. Grief from the surge of feelings I had suppressed since my mother’s funeral. That race was the hardest thing I had ever done, and the most rewarding. All credit goes to Race Marshal from Hell.
In October 2004, I let a Track & Field buddy talk me into running the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim in the same day. Harder than the DFP Marathon? Find out in Dinner and a Death March.
My beloved Bernice died February 17, 2011. Grieving for her is the hardest thing I have ever done or will ever do. Yet in time I hope to turn this grief into a lifelong celebration of the 19 wonderful years we had together. If I do make it to 70 and punch my ticket to the NYCM, I will celebrate with Bernice and all the other folks who ever dreamed of racing through the streets of the greatest city in the world.